Herald Leader To Begin Charging For Some Digital Content

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Visitors to the Lexington Herald-Leader’s website (kentucky.com) will no longer be allowed free unlimited access to stories after December 4th.

Following the lead of the Courier-Journal, The Messenger, and other Kentucky papers, the Herald-Leader announced Monday it plans to put its mobile apps and part of its website, Kentucky.com, behind a pay wall.

That means web readers will get 15 stories free every month. Beyond that, readers will have to purchase a “digital bundle” which will cost .36 cents a week for newspaper subscribers who already receive the eEdition, .60 cents a week for those with only a newspaper subscription, and $9.99 a month as a stand-alone service.

In the announcement, the Herald-Leader reports that traffic to its site has seen a dramatic increase in 2012 with an average of 1.4 million unique visitors each month.

The announcement says changes in digital media require a change in the paper’s business model.

When asked to comment on the announcement Herald Leader Editor and Vice President Peter Baniak referred all inquiries to an FAQ link found on the paper's website.